The megabyte, unit of digital data

The megabyte is 1000 kilobytes, that is one million bytes, written MB. A photo from a phone weighs two to five megabytes, and three minutes of music at 128 kbit/s makes about 2.9 megabytes.

The megabyte is where the two families of confusion meet. First the bit: a line sold at 100 Mb/s carries a hundred million bits per second, which is 12.5 MB/s, and that eightfold gap is the most common disappointment of a new subscription. Then the 1024s: Windows divides by 1 048 576 and still writes MB, so the same file shows a number 4.6 per cent below the decimal count. The IEC named that binary unit mebibyte in 1998, symbol MiB, and the name has stayed in the standards while the habit stayed in the software.

The megabyte in other units

Digital storage